Agility
by Javelinia777
Summary: When the CEO of a top corporation is found murdered in his own home, Castle and Beckett are thrust into the world of the corporate politics and society wives. Set right after the fourth episode of season 1, I wanted to explore the relationship between two of our favorite characters from a fresh perspective
1. Happy Birthday!

Chapter 1: Happy Birthday

Sarah Wellington, giggled as she walked along the cobble stone street on her way home. She was in a great mood today. It was her husband, Peter's fifty-sixth birthday and she was planning a surprise party for him. She was almost home now. She could see her apartment building just half a block away. Her hands were straining with the weight of the large bags she was carrying. As she walked on, she mentally made plans for the busy three hours of party preparations that lay ahead of her. Trisha Wellington, Peter's twenty year old daughter from his second marriage would be coming within half an hour to assist her for the most part. The decorations had already been taken care of in the morning. It was 2 pm now and the guests would start arriving after 5 pm. Peter was expected home by 6.

Within a few minutes, she was standing outside the front door to her apartment, fumbling to find her key in a large Versace bag. She frowned as she ran her hand through the assortment of contents in her purse. A few seconds later, she triumphantly inserted it into the key-hole only to find that the door was already open!

_Now that's… completely unexpected _she thought as she opened the door and entered the living room. She switched on the light switch next to the door and found the room to be exactly the same as she had left it in the morning. The stacked, white walls still had on the colorful streamers and decorative lights that had been set up in the morning. On the wall just opposite the door, a huge red banner, declaring 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER' hung horizontally. The arrangement of the furniture too was the same. Two sofas and four armchairs surrounding a round, rosewood coffee table, right in the centre of the room. All of this was placed on a very expensive, oriental, silk carpet that occupied almost a quarter of the room.

"Nothing suspicious here," she muttered to herself and placed the large bags in her hands in the seat of the armchair nearest to her. She dusted the front of her red and white striped, wrap dress and walked across the room to open a small door that led to the kitchen. Nothing out of place there either. She closed the door and again opened another one on the adjoining wall that led to their two guest bedrooms. They too were untouched.

Her heart beat quickened as she walked slowly towards the master bedroom. The door leading to it was in the farthest corner of the living room and her heart seemed to get heavier with every step that she took towards it. Finally reaching it, she turned the knob slowly and went in. Nothing out of the ordinary here either…

She frowned. How could this be…? Suddenly, she heard the main door open and a person step inside.

"Sarah," said a high-pitched voice.

It was Trisha. She was ten minutes early and Sarah walked in to the living room to greet her with a tense smile. Her brunette, step-daughter's wide grin disappeared the moment she took in Sarah's tense countenance.

"What's wrong, Sarah?"

"The front door was open when I came in ten minutes ago. I checked all the rooms. Nothing's out of place but for some reason I have a terrible feeling, Trish."

"Did you check the two bathrooms?"

"No…Ok, you check the one in the kitchen while I quickly see the one in the master bedroom."

"All right," said Trisha and swiftly made her way to the kitchen. She had the bathroom door open within seconds and her intelligent grey eyes thoroughly scanned the place. She found nothing amiss in the spacious, white-tiled expanse. She opened her mouth to convey this to Sarah when she heard the blood-curling scream….

* * *

Click, click, click went the flash bulbs as picture after picture was clicked of the crime scene. The place which only an hour ago was supposed to be the center of festivities was now the horrific scene of a double murder. Richard Castle was now standing in the center of the Wellington's living room, right next to the coffee table. He admiringly surveyed the large place around him. A rather large, self-portrait of Rembrandt himself, occupied a position of pride right below the 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' banner. He looked around the room to see three of the most famous paintings of Rembrandt on each wall, hidden, unsubtly, behind the garish decorations.

"They're all, fake. Even I can tell that," said Detective Esposito, coming up next to Castle.

"Fake or not, this place is filled to the capacity with expensive crap…" said Detective Ryan from a corner of the room. He was standing next to a CSU person who was currently in a semi-seated position on the ground, gathering scattered pieces of rose petals into a zip-lock pouch.

"Detectives, I think we're here to look at a crime scene," said Beckett for the third time that day.

"Yup, Beckett. That's what we get paid for," said a grinning Esposito.

"Sorry Beckett," said Ryan and went out of the apartment, clipboard in hand. He was tasked to ask a couple of questions to the neighbors. Esposito left to examine the other rooms while Castle followed Beckett back to the bathroom in the master bedroom where their dead bodies had been found.

Even though this was the second time he was witnessing this, the brutality of the sight before him still didn't cease to shock him. There, lying sprawled untidily on the bathroom floor where the lifeless bodies of Peter Wellington and a young blonde woman. The woman didn't look a day over twenty-two. She was skimpily clad in black-lace underwear and had large, horrifying, lacerations all over her stomach. Her legs were covered in gashes of many shapes and sizes.

There were a number of cuts on her face as well. The blood from all these had trickled onto the floor. Most of it was dry now and looking at its dark color Castle surmised that the deed must have been done a few hours ago.

Their Medical examiner, Lanie Parish was kneeling next to the young woman's body, writing something on her clipboard. She raised one eye to look at Castle and Beckett. The former gave her his trademark smile.

"Causes of death are the two gunshot wounds on both their foreheads," said Lanie.

"Even I could have told you that," said Castle.

The M.E. ignored him and continued, "I need to take the two of them to the lab for a thorough analysis. But I can tell you right now that the other wounds on the girl's body were inflicted post-mortem."

"That's… pretty strange," said Castle.

"Yes," agreed Beckett, "especially since there are none such wounds on Mr. Wellington's body. Just the one gunshot wound on his forehead. It could mean that the killer had some personal agenda against the girl."

"Isn't this Wellington married," said Lanie, still continuing to write on her clipboard.

"Thrice. Or was it twice…" said Castle looking up and scrunching his forehead.

"You mean that the woman out there is his second or third wife… I did wonder about the age gap."

"Yeah… I remember now. They were married about a year ago. I was invited to the wedding but couldn't make it. This is his third wife. Read about it in the society pages."

"Hmm… said Beckett," unable to take her eyes of the dead, young woman, "had things worked out, this could have been, wife number 4."

"You know what, Castle," said Kate, looking up at him and pointing at Peter Wellington's body, "This could be you in what…. some six years. You've already been married twice. One more to go…" she smirked.

"Yes… and wife number three out there… could very well be you… in what some three years…" he smiled.

Beckett gave him a scathing look. Lanie did her best to suppress a giggle.

Ryan came in at that moment and asked, "Any news about who our other vic is?"

"No, not yet," said Beckett, "The wife and daughter have never seen her before in their lives. And neither have the guests who just arrived. What did you learn from the neighbors, Ryan?"

"They haven't heard any suspicious noise. The entire floor has only two apartments. Both belong to the Wellingtons. The neighbors live on the other floors. They have barely ever spoken to Peter Wellington and didn't even know that Sarah was his wife."

"Guess he didn't invite them to the wedding…" said Castle.

"The first thing that we need to figure out is who our other vic is," said Beckett.

"Her name's Susan Masters. She worked as a temporary paralegal in Mr. Wellington's office. Joined a month ago," said Esposito coming in behind Ryan.

Everyone looked at him with questioning expressions. "The wife called made a call to Wellington's VP, a Chris Gallagher. He said that Pete was having an affair with the girl since the past two weeks and he saw them leaving the office together around eleven a.m. today."

"But how can he be so sure that this is the same girl?" asked Beckett.

"He just e-mailed a picture of her on Mrs. Wellington's phone," replied the detective as he handed a white, i phone to Beckett. She looked at the picture on its display and then once again at the body.

"She's our girl," said Beckett, "But positive identification is still required. We'll have to notify her family and bring them in for questioning."

"Already on it," said Esposito and walked out of the room.

The female detective turned towards Castle and said, "Let's get out of here."


	2. Interview

Chapter 2: Interview

Castle delicately balanced the steaming coffee cups in his hands as he made his way over to Ryan's desk. The blue-eyed detective was on the phone having a conversation about ballistics. He glanced up enquiringly as Castle placed the cup on his desk.

"You're gonna need it," said Castle and made his way over to Esposito's table to hand him his cup. He finally went over to Beckett who was staring at the whiteboard in one of her classic contemplation poses. She had her hands cupped at her hips as she looked up pensively at the crime details before her. Peter Wellington's three wives, a blonde, another blonde and the red head Sarah smiled down serenely from their photos.

"This is my favorite pose of yours," said Castle, "Calls attention to the immense sexiness of your hips."

Beckett just rolled her eyes at him as she accepted the coffee cup. She took a sip. It was quite good and immediately calmed her tense nerves.

"Pretty good, huh?" said Castle, "I'm so glad I got that coffee machine here. There's nothing more relaxing than good coffee. Beckett took another sip and mentally agreed with him. A thought occurred to her and she glanced at him, "You made coffee _again_. Didn't we have it on our way back?"

Richard Castle took a few sips from his own cup and then said, "Reporters are going to throng the precinct in seconds. We'll need some caffeine in our systems to deal with them. Beckett gave him a slow nod.

"Why hasn't Mrs. Wellington arrived yet? We need to question her immediately. She was the first one to find the bodies…"

* * *

Meanwhile, as Castle had mentioned, there were over a dozen reporters stationed outside the precinct entrance. News of the scandalous murder had already made waves among the press and they were all just itching to get a piece of the latest gossip. They were thrusting their microphones like assault weapons at every officer who came out through the precinct doors. All of a sudden, a sleek, silver Porsche pulled up alongside and a young woman got out of the passenger seat.

It was Sarah Wellington. She had changed into a light blue sweater and maroon skirt. Her red hair was artfully hidden under a beige scarf and she had on Armani goggles. She was still very recognizable and the reporters made a beeline for her the moment she stepped out. Two police deputies came up next to her and shuffled the news people out of her way. A few minutes later, she was seated in the visitor's room with Beckett and Castle. She removed her goggles to reveal tear-stained eyes. She opened her Versace bag to remove a tissue. Beckett couldn't wait to ask her about her step daughter's absence. She offered the young widow a coffee and was unsurprisingly refused.

"Mrs. Wellington…" began the detective.

"No please, call me Sarah"

"Very well, Sarah. Why haven't you brought Trisha Wellington with you?"

The woman appeared startled at this. "Why… how could I. That young girl was terribly scarred after seeing the bodies. I sent her back to her friend's place where she's currently living. She's in the city for the holidays. She was looking forward to seeing her father. They have always been close…" The tears started to flow again and she brought out another tissue.

Beckett decided to leave the matter for now. "But we need to talk to Trisha as soon as possible, Sarah. Even though she had been interviewed at the crime scene, we still have quite a few questions for her."

"Of course. I'll send her over tomorrow."

"Now Sarah, I need to ask you a few questions. Some of them might be uncomfortable. Are you up for it?"

The woman sniveled for a few seconds before nodding her assent.

"You're Peter Wellington's third wife?"

"Yes. We were… we were married three years ago."

"Have you ever been in contact with his previous wives?"

"Yes. Both of them. Elaine, his first wife still came over to see him quite a few times. We never exchanged anything more than a few greetings. I think we met some six times over three years. Every time, she came to see Peter and I happened to be in the house. She always refused any food or beverage offered. It would always be an awkward few minutes before Peter came in to relieve us and they walked in to his study. She would always leave after two hours. I don't know what they did. But I know Peter would never cheat on me."

Castle smirked at that as he recalled the position of the dead bodies. The old man must've been banging the young blonde for at least more than a week. And who knows how many more before that… He kept silent though.

"She wasn't at the wedding either," said Sarah.

"And what about Monique, his second wife?"

Sarah took a few minutes to respond. "She was a former beauty queen. I think Peter met her when she was a waitress at one of his corporate gigs. Fifteen years younger than him, he said that he was immediately struck by her looks and figure. Didn't have the sense to see much else with the alcohol flowing freely. She seemed equally taken by his expensive airs and drove him home as he was drunk. Needless to say that she spent the night there and it didn't take them more than two minutes to end up in bed. Elaine had already left him by then and he married that slut the next day. They barely spent two months together and filed for divorce in the fourth month of their marriage…"

She took a long pause as a contemptuous expression settled across her features. She asked for a drink of water and after receiving it continued, "Trisha was the only pleasant outcome of that distasteful fling… Monique gave birth to her six months after they separated. She just dumped the girl on Peter, didn't fight for custody and just took a lump sum from him and fled to France… She wanted to become an actress or something. I only saw her last year in June when she came to demand alimony or something. Peter refused and she went away."

"Hmmm, okay," said Beckett.

"Now, about Susan Masters… our other victim, whom your husband was…"

"She must've seduced him," snarled Sarah. She had a vicious look on her face. Gone was the appearance of a demure, newly-widowed twenty-five year old. Her blue eyes blazed with malice.

Castle and Beckett were taken aback. They looked at each other and back at Sarah.

As suddenly as the wave of malevolence had rocked her countenance, it left and a tiresome look replaced it. "Look," she said, "I have been dealing with this for three years but I and Peter were truly happy…"

She took out another tissue to wipe her eyes and continued, "In spite of our thirty year age gap, we were quite happy together. Peter never cheated on me. He was the epitome of a good husband. Always home on time for dinner. Patient, understanding, reasonable…. and now he's…"

Castle and Beckett looked at the volley of tears that left her eyes for the nth time that day. Beckett gave Castle a 'she's soooo faking it look'. Castle simply gave her a thumbs up. He looked at the widow and spoke, "Can you tell us how… you and Mr. Wellington happened to meet?"

The shower of sorrow stopped abruptly. She looked up and said, "We share the same alma mater. The University of Iowa. I had finished my graduation in business economics and he was there to present our degree. He gave such a rousing speech. That was four years back. The CEO of Axtel... presenting me my degree… We didn't connect then. I was like any other fresh off the assembly line graduate awed by him and his magnificent persona…"

She seemed calm now as she recalled the pleasant memory. "After the ceremony was over, we had lunch during which he left his VIP table and came over to chat with us. I'll never forget that moment… He talked about the American economy, not like some boring, stuffy professor but like a true businessman who understood his lifeblood. Every piece of theory that seemed so tedious in our college textbooks seemed so fresh and more relevant to our lives the way he talked about it. We were hanging onto his every word. He even asked us a few questions. He said he was most impressed by my answers. In me, he had said, he found a zest that he most people never exhibited in their entire lifetimes…"

"We talked and chatted the whole afternoon. Everything else was forgotten. The people around us slowly drifted to other tables and in an hour or so, we were alone at our table in the centre of the entire hubbub. Proud parents clicked pictures with their children, friends talked about their future plans, lovers vowed to keep in touch somehow… but we had eyes only for each other. My professors came in between to talk to Peter. They discussed my stellar academic record with him and he seemed even more impressed. I was grinning like an idiot the entire time. I don't know what had come over me. While leaving, he said he wanted to have dinner with me. But I had to be home then and he had to catch the early morning flight to New York the next day. So he offered me his business card, told me to keep in touch and left. I never thought I'd see him again…"

She fell silent at that and didn't say anything further. Beckett was getting impatient and Castle sensed another great story. What could be more scandalous then a love affair between a man and a woman thirty years apart in age. Guaranteed to sell more than a thousand copies.

Beckett wasn't interested in the love story and wanted to ask questions pertaining to the case. Every passing second fuelled her desire to change the line of questioning. Castle, sensing that she was about to do just that immediately goaded the young widow before Beckett had a chance to get two words out.

"But you two did meet again, right," he said hurriedly.

That spurred Sarah too attention and she didn't need more than a nanosecond to continue, "Oh yes. Many, many times. After that day, a week passed without any contact between us. I felt too shy to even send him a mail but every day, sixteen hours, he was on my mind. Sleep was my only reprieve from him. At the end of the week, he called himself. He seemed agitated that I hadn't contacted him and asked what I was doing. When I told him that I was at my parents, he admonished me for being lazy and told me that he was sending me a flight ticket for a one way trip to New York. He wanted me to come and work for him. I agreed in shock and was in his office the next day. He gave me a job as a junior analyst at Axtel and arranged for my housing just a block away from the office. He would take me to dinner every evening and a month after my joining; we confessed our undying love…."

Beckett almost belched at the dreamy look that came upon Sarah's eyes. This had been the longest interview of her career and she hadn't obtained a single nugget of information about her case. She needed suspects, names, numbers and all this woman had given her so far was a sappy love story.

"Um Sarah, that was very heartening to hear but I really need to ask more questions about the case."

"Yes, of course."

"Did Peter have any enemies?"

"Well of course. He was the twentieth richest man in the world. He had quite a few rivals."

"Did any of them have a reason to murder him? Had he received any death threats?"

"No, none. But I don't know much about his professional life. I left the company a day before we married. That was three months after I had joined. For his corporate life, you'll have to ask Chris, his best friend and vice president of Axtel."

"We'll do that. But as difficult as it is for you, I need to ask you about Susan Masters. Many of Peter's office people knew about his affair with her. It can't be that you hadn't got wind of it."

"Look. After resigning from the company, I have only been there a handful of times. My husband liked to keep his personal and professional lives apart. We woke up every morning at six. He would eat the breakfast I made, leave for work and come home every day at eight on time for dinner. He left town only once a month for whatever work related matters. He has rarely stayed out till after eight and the only work friends that he entertained at home where Chris and his longtime secretary, Mrs. Bettina Duval and her husband Giovanni. You can question them as well. Beyond this, I know nothing about his professional life and he never talked about work or the people there at home."

"All right…" Beckett hesitated a moment before continuing, "Had he been on any overnight trips recently?"

"Yes, he was in Albuquerque two days ago for a conference. He stayed there for four days."

"Very well, Sarah. That will be all. If there's anything else that you can think of, please contact us. Thank you."

Once the grieving widow was out and Castle had closed the door behind her, Beckett gave a large sigh.

"Whew, some people can talk and talk even in such distress. That was one of the most useless interviews I have ever had."

"Well," said Castle, "You still have quite a few. There's the VP, Chris Gallagher who'll be here in a few moments. The secretary and her husband will be here in an hour. Esposito and Ryan are already over at the company, interviewing his colleagues. Susan Master's parents have also been notified and they too will be here within the hour."

Beckett gave another sigh. She wasn't looking forward to any of them. Least of all, Mr. and Mrs. Masters who would be devastated with their young daughter's death.

A deputy officer knocked the door and came in. "Miss Parish wants to see you immediately. Something urgent has come up. She says it won't be more than ten minutes."

"All right," said Beckett and quickly trudged out of the door with Castle in tow. Chris Gallagher, the sandy haired VP in his late forties got up as soon as he saw them. He would have to wait. Beckett apologized profusely to him saying that she would be back in half an hour.

"Try the coffee," Castle whispered to him, "I hear it's the best in four precincts."

Beckett mouthed an annoyed, 'Castle' to him and resumed her way towards the morgue.


End file.
